Russia mourns plane victims
2006-07-10 08:37
Irkutsk - Up to 137 people died on Sunday when a Russian passenger plane veered off a runway, slammed into a concrete wall and burst into flames while landing in the Siberian city of Irkutsk, officials said.
"Sixty-three people survived the crash.... There were 200 people on board," a spokesperson for the Irkutsk section of the emergency situations ministry told AFP.
Eleven people walked away from the crash site among a complex of garages near the airport and 52 others were hospitalised, the spokesperson said, adding that 120 bodies had been recovered from the wreckage.
Later rescue officials said as quoted by the Vesti television news that a total of 195 passengers and eight crew were on board, and that 122 bodies were found while 74 people had survived.
Brake failure
The incident occurred when the Airbus A310 careered off the tarmac early on Sunday in slippery conditions, possibly due to a hydraulic brake failure, according to an inquiry official.
The plane then broke through a wall and ploughed into the garage complex used by local residents, officials said.
Russia's Vesti 24-hour news channel broadcast images recorded on a mobile phone that showed flames and thick black smoke billowing from the fuselage.
One witness said he saw survivors clambering out onto the plane's wing and walking from the scene, many of them suffering burns.
It was the second recent crash of an Airbus in Russia, after an Armenian Airbus A320 crashed into the Black Sea near Sochi in May killing all 113 on board.
Inquiry into cause of crash
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a government inquiry to be set up, transport minister Igor Levitin said.
No definite reason for the crash has yet been put forward, but officials said that the black box flight recorders had been found and would be sent to Moscow for examination.
The landing at Irkutsk airport is said to be unusually difficult because of the relatively short runway, lodged among mountains.
Prosecutors announced they had opened a criminal inquiry into the crash.
National mourning
Putin expressed "his deep condolences to relatives and friends of those who died in the plane crash in Irkutsk," the Kremlin press service said.
The Russian leader declared Monday a national day of mourning, calling for flags to be flown at half-mast and for television channels to cancel entertainment shows, the Kremlin said in a written statement.
Airbus said in a statement that specialists had been dispatched to Russia to provide assistance.
The plane was built in 1987 and had carried out more than 10 000 flights, Airbus said.